"In the wake of ruthless arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in Minneapolis, one Harvard political scientist is arguing something many of us have suspected for a long time: the US is moving away from its traditional democratic framework toward a fundamentally different system of governance. In an interview with the media industry publication Status, Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky made the case that the Trump administration's assault on democratic norms has now become extreme, even by the standards of right-wing dictators."
"Since coming to power, the Hungarian strongman has systematically dismantled the country's judiciary, as well as its election system by rewriting the constitution. Yet as Levitsky notes, even Orbán has stopped short of the kind of paramilitary street enforcement emerging in the US. "Orbán doesn't arrest journalists," the Harvard academic claimed. "In Hungary if you walk the streets of Budapest or other Hungarian cities, you will not find heavily armed masked men abducting people. That doesn't happen in Hungary.""
Ruthless arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in Minneapolis indicate a shift away from traditional democratic frameworks toward a different system of governance. The Trump administration's assault on democratic norms has escalated to levels comparable to authoritarian regimes where journalists are detained. Hungary's leader dismantled judicial and electoral institutions but has not employed heavily armed masked forces to abduct citizens. Efforts to silence the press and embolden armed federal agents represent an alarming escalation. Decades of neoliberal austerity hollowed economic foundations and set the stage for democratic erosion.
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